


i am not moon and mirror, i am flesh and bone

by Vitali (exocara)



Category: Elsewhere University (Webcomic), Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: AU where instead of the University in Detroit it's the incredibly weird Elsewhere University, Aliases, Alternate Universe - College/University, Crossover with Elsewhere University, Faeries - Freeform, Fake Names, Gen, M/M, The Good People
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 02:18:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9857627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exocara/pseuds/Vitali
Summary: In which instead of an unnamed college in Detroit, Yuuri goes to Elsewhere University. Elsewhere University, with its strange rules and stranger traditions.This changes things.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry but the Viktor/Yuuri part comes in the next chapter. It'll also be in Viktor POV so look forward to that I guess
> 
>  
> 
> [Find out more about Elsewhere University here](http://charminglyantiquated.tumblr.com/post/157198258378/coexisting-with-the-fair-folk-who-have-taken-up)
> 
>  
> 
> Primer: Elsewhere University is filled with faeries. The Good Folk. Gentries. This is not exactly a good thing. 
> 
> (Phichit is called Arthur here btw, just for a bit)

Yuuri is accepted into Elsewhere University. 

His parents are proud of him. Elsewhere University is considered prestigious (and has strangely flexible timings for a school that doesn’t often take in professional athletes, and also an ice rink on campus for some reason) but Yuuri is sure that his parents will be proud of him even if he chooses not to further his studies and just help out at the inn. 

When Yuuri does his research on Elsewhere University, in the English language he is very close to mastering, he ends up crawling through blogs posts more than anything and comes up with a list of hard rules to follow. They are strange, and sometimes very specific, but not exactly hard to follow, so he doesn’t mind. 

The acceptance letter into Elsewhere University comes with an instruction for Yuuri to come up with a name he is comfortable with using for the years he will spend in the university. After some contemplation, Yuuri chooses  _ Katsudon. _

-o-

Yuuri takes up a business major with no minors. He can’t afford a minor when he wants to focus on his professional ice skating career. 

A group of volunteers meet Yuuri and the other new students at the gates of the campus. Yuuri is paired with a girl who calls herself Kitkat and a student of undefinable gender who calls themselves Aloe. Aloe offers Yuuri a packet of salt -- “Campus superstition,” they say -- but Yuuri already has his own. Aloe gives Yuuri an appraising look at that, along with an upward quirk of their lips. Yuuri has the feeling that he’s gotten their approval. 

Kitkat tells Yuuri to stay out of the libraries and the laundry rooms between the times of one to four in the morning. Yuuri wants to ask why, but he isn’t sure if he wants to know the answer. 

“What do you call yourself, anyway?” Kitkat asks Yuuri as they help move his things into the dorm room. Yuuri hesitates for a moment. He’s already sent in his chosen name but months have passed since then and there is always enough time for him to regret and have second thoughts. 

But he’s already handed in the paperwork. And, he now knows someone who goes by ‘Kitkat’, so, 

“I call myself Katsudon,” Yuuri says and Kitkat’s eyes light up. 

“Food name buddies!” she says with a grin, holding out her hand in the shape of a fist. Hesitantly, Yuuri does the same and Kitkat bumps their fists together. 

-o- 

His ice skating coach in the university is a man who goes by ‘Ciao Ciao’. 

Ciao Ciao is an Italian man with long brown hair and large green eyes. He is also very cheerful and amiable, and wears a single iron bracelet. He has a wife who is a professor on campus, in charge of teaching sculpting classes, and Yuuri has never seen her eat despite seeing her sit with Ciao Ciao when it is lunch time. No one says anything, though, so Yuuri doesn’t do so either. 

He shared the rink with three other skaters -- two female skaters and one male -- and even Yuuri himself can see that they are talented beyond belief, almost at Viktor Nikiforov’s level. 

They are all nice and friendly, eager to share their knowledge and help Yuuri with his techniques. Once, Yuuri asks them why they aren’t competing internationally. 

“I accepted food from people I shouldn’t,” Coraline says with a wry smile. Yuuri has noticed that, similar to Ciao Ciao’s wife, Yuuri has never seen Coraline eat before. 

“I shattered the bones in my leg and needed a miracle to fix it.” Bluebird’s mouth twists when she says ‘miracle’. Yuuri has witnessed Bluebird skate before, landing jumps like they are nothing and skating like she has never, ever had an injury in her life. 

“I lost a game,” Eric says simply. 

Yuuri looks at his rinkmates once again and finally sees their too-tired eyes and the way they sometimes wistfully gaze towards the campus gates. He doesn’t ask again. 

-o- 

Each dorm room has two iron safes. 

_ “It’s to keep all your personal stuff, things with your actual name on it,” Aloe had explained. “It’s the only thing that can prevent theft.”  _

_ “I didn’t think that theft would be such an issue here,” Yuuri said. “The campus seems very secure.”  _

_ Aloe merely shook their head, a wry smile on their lips.  _

_ “You don’t know half of it, freshie.”  _

Yuuri uses it to store his passport and various other legal documents that a transfer from another country needs. 

His roommate, a boy called Richie who scoffs at the campus superstitions and is rude to every single thing he comes into contact with, doesn’t bother with it and leaves his paperwork lying all over the room. Yuuri tries his best to be nice, to be kind and non-judgemental, but he quickly resigns himself to an unpleasant few years with an unpleasant roommate. 

One night, as Yuuri places his daily butter patty outside the door, Richie scoffs at him. 

“I can’t believe you’re doing all this shit,” he says with a sneer. He steps on the butter patty and Yuuri flinches. Thankfully, he has a lot more, along with a small packet of jam he did not use this morning during breakfast. 

“We should just respect tradition,” Yuuri tells him in a soft voice. He is afraid to raise it, afraid of confrontation. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.” 

Richie says nothing, only continues to sneer. 

The next day, something that calls itself Richie and wears a skin that looks like Richie enters Yuuri’s dorm room. It certainly  _ seems _ like Richie in that if you are looking for a specific feature of Richie in it, that feature will always surface, but its eyes are too dark, teeth just a touch too sharp, and  _ most importantly, _ it isn’t an outright asshole. 

Yuuri doesn’t even think of taking anything out from his iron safe. He spends most of his time in his room, smiles politely at not-Richie, and tries his best to be kind. He saves his jam packets for not-Richie, still leaves butter patties by the door, and doesn’t talk about how long not-Richie’s nails are… or why Yuuri can never tell where the nails end and the finger-flesh begins. 

It’s a rough few months for Yuuri and Yuuri honestly can’t say he’s sad when not-Richie stops showing up. A few weeks later, someone comes to collect Richie’s things. 

Yuuri doesn’t hear about Richie ever again. 

-o- 

Despite all the strange things that tend to happen in Elsewhere University, Yuuri doesn’t come into contact with anything else after the not-Richie incident. It starts to become easier for him to say ‘if you don’t mind’ instead of ‘please’, ‘that’s very nice of you’ instead of ‘thank you’, and ‘pardon me’ instead of ‘sorry’. 

When Eric offers him a drink during break and Yuuri, unconsciously, doesn’t take it until he says ‘Freely given’, he knows that he’s already acclimatised himself to the school. 

-o- 

Yuuri thinks about themes, he thinks about what songs he could possibly want to skate to. 

In the end, he allows Ciao Ciao to choose the songs for him. 

-o- 

The start of the academic year coincides very nicely with the start of the figure skating season. 

Yuuri is suffering. 

Someone whispers to him about a tree somewhere in campus, where you can leave a valued item of yours in exchange for a miracle. 

Yuuri thinks about Bluebird. He thinks about how she much she talks about her home in another state but never once goes back. He knows it is not from a lack of trying. 

Yuuri is suffering, but he is not  _ desperate. _

-o- 

He takes gold at the the regional championships and qualifies for the Grand Prix Series. 

-o- 

He manages a bronze at Skate America but, gets fourth place in Trophée de France. He doesn’t qualify for the Grand Prix Final and goes back to Elsewhere University to practice for Japanese Nationals. He doesn’t feel disappointed when he learns his rinkmates did not watch his competition. After all,  _ Katsuki Yuuri _ would have been broadcasted loudly from television speakers, allowing just about anyone -- and  _ anything _ \-- to learn his true name. 

Yuuri can land the quad toe loop around fifty percent of the times in competitions. Coraline, Bluebird, and Eric stay with him when he skates late into the night, each of them carrying iron accessories and packets of salt. 

By the time Yuuri goes to Japanese nationals, he can land the quad toe loop in competitions without any difficulties. 

-o-

Yuuri doesn’t qualify for the Four Continents. Neither does he qualify for the World Championships. 

That is fine. 

-o-

Viktor wins his first gold at the World Championships. 

-o-

A lady with too-bright eyes and green beads in her long golden hair stops him when he is on his way back to the dorms. She smiles at him with perfectly straight teeth and something in that smile makes Yuuri think of not-Richie. 

“You are a figure skater, yes?” she asks. Yuuri hesitates for a moment before nodding. Her smile, somehow, grows wider. The edges are too sharp. Yuuri knows it is polite to look at people in the face when they are talking to you but there is nowhere safe to look at. “That’s wonderful,” she purrs. “Will you skate for me?” 

“I,” Yuuri starts. He pauses. He swallows. “Pardon me,” he manages. “I’m very busy.” 

“A pity,” she hums. “I do love ice skaters.” 

-o- 

“You have been holing yourself up in your room for, like, three months now, my food name buddy,” Kitkat says one day, marching into Yuuri’s dorm room. “At first I left you to it, everyone has days they don’t want to interact with people, but three months is just too much.” 

“Hello Kitkat,” Yuuri says. 

“You are coming with me and my friends to a party tonight. No ifs or buts about it,” Kitkat tells him. Yuuri hesitates. He knows that if he really doesn’t want to go, Kitkat wouldn’t force him. But Kitkat is also right, he can’t stay like this forever. 

“Okay then,” Yuuri says. “I’ll go.” 

-o- 

The party starts out like every other party until the Other guests arrive. 

“Don’t drink anything they offer you,” one of Kitkat’s friends hisses to Yuuri. “Really, just  _ don’t.” _

Unfortunately, accidents happen and a lady with green beads in her hair offers Yuuri a red cup of drink. 

-o- 

Yuuri groans when he wakes up. The sun is bright and his head hurts. 

“I can’t believe you,” someone says to him. Yuuri squints and sees that it is Kitkat. “You’re… you’re so lucky that you won,” she chokes out. 

“I… won?” 

“Yes you won, you talented bastard!” Kitkat says. “We were all so scared for you but then you pulled out moves that no one expected and you  _ won.” _

“Kitkat.” Yuuri pushes himself to a sitting position and notes that he is lying in an unfamiliar dorm room. Judging by the presence of Kitkat, it’s probably Kitkat’s dorm room. 

“Kitkat,” Yuuri says again. “What do you mean I won? What did I do?” 

-o-

Apparently he drank the alcohol the Other guests brought. In any other situation, this would have meant that he would belong to them until the end of time but somehow he managed? To win himself back? 

“How?” Yuuri had asked in disbelief. 

“Dance battle,” was Kitkat’s only answer. 

Yuuri swears never to drink ever again. 

-o-

Despite what the RA said to him when people came to take away Richie’s things, Yuuri doesn’t get a roommate until the next year. 

His new roommate turns out to be an international student who enrolled in Elsewhere University due to their flexible schedules and the on-campus ice rink, just like Yuuri. 

Arthur -- nicknamed after the Arthur in his favorite movie  _ The King and The Skater, Katsudon you absolutely  _ **_have_ ** _ to watch this with me _ \-- is a professional ice skater from Thailand and it is his dream to promote the joys of ice skating to his country. 

Yuuri has a feeling that he and Arthur are going to get along just fine. 

-o-

Arthur gets invited to a party almost a week after he settles himself into campus. Arthur begs Yuuri to go and Yuuri cannot seem to say no to Arthur’s puppy dog eyes. 

Yuuri keeps to himself and drinks water from his own bottle that he had brought to the party. Arthur flits around and socialises but he doesn’t stray too far from Yuuri. Perhaps Arthur is aware of the Other guests in the party, with their too-bright too-dark eyes and their wide smiles, or perhaps it is subconscious, but Yuuri doesn’t mind. 

Yuuri sees someone walk up to Arthur and hands him a drink. Yuuri cannot make out most of their features from where he is standing, but he manages to see green beads in golden hair. 

Yuuri thinks about Coraline and Ciao Ciao’s wife. He thinks about the look on Kitkat’s face after the first party he had attended in the University. He thinks about Richie and not-Richie and how no one speaks about either of them ever. 

Yuuri thinks about Arthur and his sunny smile and his warm personality and the fire in his eyes when he talks about his dream. 

The next thing Yuuri knows is that he is grabbing into Arthur’s hands before Arthur accepts the drink. 

“Pardon me,” Yuuri says with a thin smile. “We are very busy.” 

The lady with too-bright eyes and green beads in her golden hair smiles widely with perfect teeth. The edges of her mouth flicker and Yuuri might have seen her smile stretch into infinity. 

Arthur stiffens up and takes half a step behind Yuuri.

“A pity,” the lady says, her voice overlapping with a million others, the sound of a blade hitting ice, a frozen lake cracking, the splash of someone falling in. “I do love ice skaters.”

-o- 

“You saved me,” Arthur says to Yuuri once they are back in their room. “Thank you.” 

“Say ‘that’s nice of you’ or ‘cheers’ instead of ‘thank you’,” Yuuri advises. “Say ‘if you don’t mind’ instead of ‘please’ and ‘pardon me’ instead of ‘sorry’.” 

“Alright, tha-- cheers.” 

Yuuri smiles. 

“You’re already learning.” 

-o- 

Arthur and Yuuri stick with each other after that, almost inseparable when Yuuri is not in class. 

Arthur adapts quickly, although he certainly has reason to do so for there are times that Yuuri catches sight of green and gold and wide smiles hovering just at the corner of his eyes. 

When Arthur starts taking up blackroom photography, filled with strange metals and change, Yuuri stops seeing the green and gold around them. 

-o- 

Someone stops Yuuri at the crossroads in front of one of the buildings. He asks Yuuri if he can have the book in Yuuri’s hands in exchange for something. That something turns out to be a copy of one off Viktor Nikiforov’s limited edition posters and Yuuri is so,  _ so _ tempted. The book is just a simple notebook he uses to jot down ideas for his ice skating programs anyway, it’s nothing special. 

But people have warned him against making deals at crossroads. 

Arthur saves him, in the end, running towards Yuuri and shouting “Katsudon!!!” at the top of his lungs. Yuuri blinks and the person is gone. 

Later Arthur will tell him that the person did not show up with Arthur looked through the camera of his phone but now all Arthur does is pull Yuuri away from the crossroads and towards the building where students practice metalworking. 

-o- 

Someone tells him, “You have the attention of one of Them.” 

There is pity in their eyes when they say it. 

-o- 

A music major Yuuri remembers hanging around Phichit walks up to him with a green and gold CD in her hand. There are bags under her eyes and she is shaking. 

“I heard that you were looking for songs for your free skate program,” she tells him. Technically he has, but he has told no one about it yet. “Someone… commissioned me to make something for you, given freely, but you don’t have to use it,” she says and her eyes are torn between begging for him to use the music, to set her free, and warning him against using it. 

Yuuri takes the disk from her. 

“You don’t have to use it,” she says again, “but there are some people who will be very happy if you do.” 

-o- 

“Do you have a song in mind for your free skate?” Ciao Ciao asks when Yuuri walks up to him with the green and gold CD. Eric takes one look at the colors and pales. 

“Yes,” Yuuri says. From the corner of his eye, he sees Eric quickly skate off the ice and rush to the toilet. 

Ciao Ciao puts the CD in the CD player and immediately the voices of various instruments burst forth; fiddles, bells, lutes, wooden flutes, a harp, a harpsichord, and something that could be vocals but you are never able to concentrate on them too long to find out. By all accounts, these instruments played in such a way should sound jarring but the melody is smooth and wraps around you like a cozy blanket or a silken prison. 

When the song ends, the melody fading away as if carried by a breeze, Ciao Ciao turns to Yuuri with a complicated expression on his face. 

“Are you sure you want to use something like this?” he asks. Yuuri knows what Ciao Ciao is implying. The music is borderline fey, might even  _ be _ Other, and everyone knows it is dangerous to simply draw attention to yourself by acknowledging them because, by acknowledging them, you are giving them the chance to acknowledge you. 

The thing is, Yuuri has already caught the attention of one. 

Maybe, in another world, in another life, Yuuri would have done something different, would have backed down from Ciao Ciao’s intense, searching look and said, “Please choose the music for me after all, Coach.” 

However, in that world Ciao Ciao would have asked Yuuri another question. In that world, Yuuri wouldn’t be in Elsewhere University. 

In this world, Yuuri is and he says, “Yes.” 

-o- 

It is hard to craft a choreography that best reflects the music when one’s experiences have purely been from this world and the music itself draws elements from Others. Coraline and Bluebird try to help out the best they can, having had their own scant memories of interactions they had, but there is only so much they can do. 

Yuuri thinks about giving up but then he remembers how the music major looked. 

Yuuri pushes on. 

-o- 

After a week, Eric returns to the rink. There is an expression of grim determination on his face as he pulls Yuuri aside. 

“I can help with your choreography,” Eric tells Yuuri. “I’ve been there. I know what They like.” 

-o- 

No matter how many times Yuuri practices the free program, he can’t seem to get it right. The technical aspect is one part of it, but the performance aspect is lacking something as well. Eric does the program just fine. Yuuri knows that Eric has more experience than him. 

Yuuri’s inferiority still eats him up inside.

-o- 

“You need to take a break,” Arthur tells Yuuri. 

“Hmm, what?” Yuuri hears but does not listen, too busy trying to get one of the step sequences in the program right. He never does. 

“Katsudon!” Yuuri has to come to an abrupt stop to avoid skating into Arthur. 

“Arthur!” Yuuri bites back sarcastically. 

“Katsudon,” Arthur says again, softer this time. “There are bags under your eyes. And when was the last time you ate?” 

Yuuri doesn’t remember. It should scare him more than it does. 

“It’s like, it’s like you’re in some sort of frenzy. A fever. The program is all you think about, you’re…” Arthur pauses. Yuuri knows what he wants to say. 

“I’m obsessed,” Yuuri finishes for Arthur. “That’s what you were going to say, right? That I’m  _ obsessed _ with the program. And, yeah, maybe I am! So  _ what _ if I am?!” Yuuri is shouting at this point and everyone in the rink is looking at him. He only realises that he has done a second later and shrinks into himself, head buzzing with confusion and anger. 

“Why are you so fixated on this?” Arthur asks and Yuuri doesn’t have an answer. 

Ciao Ciao bans Yuuri from the ice for a week. 

-o- 

Yuuri picks up his skates and leaves his dorm room. Something beneath his skin is itching and he has to get it out on the ice. 

(Uncharacteristically, he forgets his iron bracelet.) 

Usually Yuuri would ask for someone to accompany him on late night skating runs but he knows that no one will allow him to go tonight, and so he goes alone. 

Yuuri has always felt that the ice rink is some sort of liminal space, that time seems to flow differently in it. That feeling grows stronger at night when the only noises that accompany Yuuri are the echoes of the ice beneath his blades. 

Yuuri puts his headphones on and begins to skate. He isn’t even a full five seconds into the program but he already knows that it is not what he wants. He stops. He restarts. He restarts. He restarts. 

He doesn’t know what he’s doing wrong. 

And then clapping pierces through the music. Yuuri’s eyes snap up to the side of the rink and sees the lady with green beads in her blonde hair. There are shadows in the rink that Yuuri has never seen before, swaying and swaying and rippling and rippling. Everything is slightly tinted in blue, enough to make you notice but also so subtle that you can dismiss as something else. 

Yuuri stops the music. 

“I bet your dance will be much better if you do it all the way to the end,” the lady tells him. Yuuri doesn’t answer. She is still smiling and her teeth are shadowed and is it just Yuuri or does her hair look slightly damp? Is she dripping water all over the floor? 

The shadows sway and sway. Yuuri remembers seeing shadows like that before in Hasetsu. His family brought him to the beach and Yuuri had sat under the waves, watching the world from underwater. It had made him calm, then, but now it just makes him sick. 

“Will you skate for me?” the lady asks. “We have all the time in the world.” 

“Will you send me back to Elsewhere University?” Yuuri asks back.  _ “My _ Elsewhere University, in my time, in the place you took me from,” he adds because he remembers Kitkat telling him to be incredibly specific if making a request. 

“If your skating is good, I will send you back,” the lady says. 

“What do you mean by good?” Yuuri asks. The lady hums in thought. 

“If you attract the attention of a crowd,” she says finally. Yuuri takes a deep breath and musters up enough of his courage to look at her directly in her too-bright, inhuman, eyes. 

“I will keep skating until I draw the attention of a crowd, or until I admit defeat,” Yuuri says with a bravado he does not feel. “And people will be able to see me as I skate, a crowd  _ will _ be able to come into here, promise?” 

“A wager,” the lady says with a sharp grin. Her teeth flicker from human-straight to… something else for just a moment. “Oh, this is a delightful game. I promise.” 

The walls of the rink wash away like sand structures melted by the waves of the sea. 

Yuuri’s hands are shaking as he plays the song on his phone. 

-o- 

Yuuri flubs all his jumps the first, second, third, fourth, fifth time he attempts the program. His feet are knives, his legs jelly, but he keeps on going. He cannot stop. He cannot afford to stop. 

Yuuri skates and skates and skates and skates. He does not stop even when he runs through the entire program, only restarts it again from the beginning. 

He’s never really wanted attention, preferring to focus on telling a story through his skating rather than trying to get all eyes on him, but this is the time for him to try. To  _ do. _

Yuuri skates and skates and skates and skates. Desperation is in his every step, his every jump. A reckless gamble from someone who has everything to gain and nothing to lose. 

And when his hopelessness is at its peak, his despair threatening to overwhelm him, Yuuri thinks of his parents and his friends and his dream and  _ Viktor Nikiforov. _

Yuuri skates and skates and skates and skates. He skates his fucking  _ heart  _ out on the ice and, when he finishes the routine, he notices a gathering of people around the rink. 

He looks directly at the lady and her mouth is twisted, as if she doesn’t know whether to be pleased or disappointed. 

“You are great,” the lady tells him, finally. “Your skills are wasted in that world.” The crowd surrounding him murmurs, seemingly agreeing with her. “If you stay, I will take good care of you.” 

Yuuri says nothing, only looking at the lady with quiet determination. She sighs reluctantly. 

“A promise is a promise,” she says and the walls of the ice rink are back, the crowd gone, and sun shines in through the window. The shadows are firm and as solid as shadows can be, and they do not move. 

“Katsudon,” someone gasps. Yuuri turns and sees Arthur standing at the entrance of the rink. Yuuri tries to skate towards him but collapses instead. His feet feel like they are burning. Arthur vaults over the barrier of the rink and slides to him in his sneakers. 

“Put, put this on,” Arthur says, holding out something round and vaguely greyish-silver. Ah, it’s Yuuri’s iron bracelet. Without saying much, Yuuri takes it from Arthur and slides it onto his wrist. Tension bleeds out of Arthur’s frame and he nearly collapses against Yuuri has he sobs. 

“’m s’rry,” Yuuri slurs.

“Silly Katsudon,” Arthur says through his sniffles. “You’re supposed to say ‘Pardon me’.” 

-o- 

“You can’t attend the Grand Prix like this,” Ciao Ciao tells him. 

“What?” Yuuri asks. His voice breaks and Ciao Ciao grimaces. 

“I know that you want to get back to skating as soon as possible but you need to rehabilitate! You’re lucky you didn’t skate your feet into bloody  _ stubs!” _

“My feet?” Yuuri looks down and, finally, sees the state of his feet for the first time. “Oh,” he says simply, and faints. 

-o- 

When Yuuri wakes up again, he learns from Arthur that he had been gone for two weeks. 

_ “It just seemed like a few hours,” Yuuri said quietly, shell-shocked at the news.  _

_ “Time flows by differently There,” Eric had replied solemnly. _

Yuuri takes the news that he is to sit out the figure skating season as well as he could. That is to say, not very well, but when the frustration is gone he can understand why. 

-o- 

A little whining from Arthur and some puppy eyes from  _ both _ Arthur and Yuuri later causes Ciao Ciao to allow Yuuri to accompany Arthur in Arthur’s Grand Prix Series journey. 

Arthur is assigned to Skate Canada and the NHK Trophy. 

On the airplane to Canada, Arthur quietly tells Yuuri that his name is Phichit Chulanont. Yuuri doesn’t hesitate to reveal his as Katsuki Yuuri. 

-o- 

Phichit takes bronze at Skate Canada but fifth place at the NHK Trophy. 

-o- 

When Yuuri and Phichit return back to their dorm room, they see that an iron horseshoe has been hammered onto the frame above their door. 

It is probably for the best. 

-o-

“You haven’t been skating,” a familiar-unfamiliar voice says from behind Yuuri. Yuuri doesn’t turn around. 

“I’m injured,” he replies. “I can’t skate when I’m injured.” 

“Ah.” The sound of plastic beads clicking against each other. A faint scent of crisp ice and snow. A container is placed on the table in front of Yuuri. 

“Freely given,” the voice says. “I hope you can skate again soon.” 

-o- 

Yuuri brings the container back to his dorm room. Phichit gives it the stink eye. 

“She said it was freely given,” Yuuri tells him. He opens up the container to find ointment that smells like snow and pine. Phichit helps him apply it to his feet. He refuses when Yuuri offers him some. 

The next morning, when Yuuri wakes up, his feet are fully healed. 

-o-

Ciao Ciao looks at his feet with a pursed mouth. In the end, he still allows Yuuri on the ice. 

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Eric tells Yuuri. Yuuri can tell that Eric disapproves but Eric still helps Yuuri with perfecting his quad salchow. 

-o- 

Kitkat stops by Yuuri’s dorm room with an arm full of tidbits. Yuuri reluctantly tells her that he cannot afford to eat those because he’s a figure skater. 

“Aww, what a waste,” Kitkat pouts. She eats them in front of him anyway, because she’s horrible like that. 

-o- 

Viktor Nikiforov wins gold at the World Championships a second time as Yuuri trains tirelessly for the next figure skating season. 

-o- 

“I knew Viktor Nikiforov,” Eric says offhandedly one day. Yuuri skates to a complete stop, staring at Eric with wide eyes. 

“Oh my god, how?” Yuuri asks. Eric shrugs. 

“We competed in Juniors together. I wasn’t really as good as him but, then again, who is?” Eric proceeds to land a perfect quad lutz. “He’s younger than me, you know?” 

Eric stops in front of Yuuri. “Katsudon, don’t make the same mistakes I have,” he said. “I thought having the attention of the Others was a good thing. It’s not.” His gaze is feverish and his fingers dig into Yuuri’s shoulders. “Even if they offer you talent, fame, fortune, never go with them. Never accept. Never play games with them, never--” He chokes on his words and falls onto the ice, grabbing at his throat. 

In the reflection of the ice, Yuuri sees green and gold. 

-o- 

“Katsudon?” The call of his nickname startles Yuuri out of his daze. Yuuri refocuses back into the present to see Kitkat standing in front of him, a worried expression on her face. 

“Oh, hello Kitkat.” Yuuri tries to smile and he doesn’t need to look in a mirror to see that it is lackluster at best. 

“Katsudon, you alright?” Kitkat steps closer to Yuuri. Normally Yuuri doesn’t mind her closeness that much, knowing and already used to the fact that Kitkat tends to be pushy and likes to insert herself into the personal space of others. It’s a sign of affection, just Kitkat being friendly. 

However, for some reason, Kitkat’s actions grate at Yuuri’s nerves. 

“I’m fine. It’s just Eric, a rinkmate. He got into an… a nasty accident,” Yuuri tells Kitkat. 

“Oh…” Kitkat looks sympathetic.  _ Pitying. _ “My condolences, Katsudon.” She moves forward and puts her arms around him in a hug. 

Yuuri shoves her away. 

It is hard to tell who looks more shocked in that instance, Yuuri and Kitkat simple staring at each other with wide eyes, their arms still outstretched but in two different ways. 

“I, I.” Yuuri inhales sharply. “Pardon me.” 

Yuuri runs. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> title from the podcast "Mabel" 
> 
>  
> 
> [find me on tumblr](http://vitavitali.tumblr.com)
> 
> #edit: I posted it to the wrong psued! how silly of me. haha haha ha


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